18/04/2025 21:30
Lewis Hamilton was hauled before the stewards at the Saudi Arabian
Grand Prix after the Ferrari driver was alleged to have impeded
Alex Albon during FP2. Early in the session at the Jeddah Corniche
Circuit, the seven-time F1 drivers' champion was seen going slowly
through Turn 18 when the Williams driver approached at speed whilst
on a fast lap. He immediately had to back out of his effort,
jumping on team radio call the move "dangerous" , whilst the
stewards deemed it worthy of investigation after the session.
However, following that review of the incident, the officials
decided that "no further action" was the correct decision for the
near miss. In the official FIA decision document, the stewards
explained how that call was reached, with it being predicated on
Albon backtracking on his view that Hamilton's driving was
dangerous. Check out the full explanation given by the stewards in
their verdict below. 'Reason' outlined by the FIA in the official
decision document "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 44
(Lewis Hamilton), the driver of Car 23 (Alexander Albon), team
representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data,
video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence and
determined that Car 44 unnecessarily impeded Car 23 during Practice
2 at Turn 17. "However, as agreed with the teams, unless the
impeding during free practice was such that it could be regarded as
dangerous, there will be no penalty for such impeding. "During the
hearing, the driver of Car 23 felt that he had the car under
control at all times and while he was impeded, he did not consider
the situation to be dangerous. "He had seen Car 44 in front of him
during the corner before. However, he did not expect Car 44 to be
in the position on track that he was in and that shocked the driver
of Car 23 as he approached Turn 17 and had to take evasive action.
While his immediate reaction when the incident occurred was to say
that it was dangerous, having looked at it subsequently, he agreed
that it was not. "We accordingly took no further action."
